Dangerous semen 🧫

🔬 Of all things, semen isn’t on the top of your mind when you think about danger, is it? Indeed, to date, little had been done to study the risk of boar semen, but for the first time ever, researchers have proven through a controlled study that boars can infect gilts with African Swine Fever (ASF) through artificial insemination (AI).

     • As the threat of ASF persists around the globe, research is being conducted in the US to help prevent and prepare for outbreaks, such as ways to find out when boars start shedding the virus. 

     • The study observed that after inoculation, all boars were shedding ASF virus in the semen. Using that semen, 14 gilts were bred and, a week later, half of them were infected. Another interesting finding was that there was no effect on semen quality until day 14.

🔍 For further details on the study, check this out.